» News » For Work on High-Efficiency Photovoltaics, Dan Friedman Named APS Fellow

For Work on High-Efficiency Photovoltaics, Dan Friedman Named APS Fellow

October 24, 2018

The American Physical Society elected as a fellow Daniel Friedman of the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Friedman, manager of the lab’s High Efficiency Crystalline Photovoltaics Group, joined
NREL 28 years ago and the American Physical Society (APS) two years before that. His
work at NREL has centered on improving the efficiency of photovoltaic technology by
developing multijunction solar cells, including using highly efficient materials from
the third and fifth columns of the periodic table of elements.

APS, a nonprofit organization based in College Park, Maryland, represents more than
55,000 members on its mission to advance the knowledge of physics. Roger Falcone,
president of APS, wrote in a letter to Friedman: “The number of APS Fellows elected
each year is limited to no more than one half of one percent of the membership. It
is a prestigious recognition by your peers of your outstanding contributions to physics.”

The citation that appears on Friedman’s fellowship certificate praises him “For outstanding
contributions in the field of III-V semiconductor physics and multijunction photovoltaic
science and groundbreaking work in the materials physics of ordering in III-V alloys
and optics and device physics for novel structures and record solar conversion efficiencies."

“I am very appreciative of the honor,” said Friedman, who earned his doctorate in
applied physics from Stanford University in 1987. “I was fortunate to have great mentors:
my former NREL colleagues Jerry Olson and Sarah Kurtz.”

Friedman, Olson and Kurtz were honored with an R&D 100 Award in 2012 for their record-breaking, triple-junction solar cell.